Wall design imprint tool

ABSTRACT

The present invention is a tool for forming aligned repeating pattern impressions in a deformable material. This tool comprises an upper support plate with at least one handle and a lower forming surface adjacent the upper support plate. The lower forming surface has raised elements designed to form pattern impressions in the deformable material. The raised elements are defined in part by four opposite edges forming a lower perimeter adjacent an upper perimeter of the upper support plate. One of two edges of the lower perimeter is designed to create a respective impression that will match only with an impression created by a respective one of two opposite edges. To ensure proper alignment of the impression, the tool also is provided with alignment indicia to align a first impression made by one continuous perimeter edge of the raised elements to a subsequent impression made by the opposite perimeter edge of the raised elements. The alignment indicia includes both the upper perimeter of the upper support plate corresponding to the edges forming the lower perimeter or the upper support plate being transparent. Either alignment indicia will ensure that an operator can align a prior impression made by the tool with one of the perimeter edges of the tool so that the subsequent perimeter impressions will overlap one another.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to tools for forming patterns in a soft material, and more particularly, to an improved impression tool for forming decorative patterns in plaster, cement, and paint.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Tools for forming decorative patterns in plaster, cement, and paint to provide the appearance of designs which include, for example, the skin of an animal such as a crocodile or snake, brick work, crackle, or stylized figures such as flowers, have gained in popularity in recent years.

Two general classes of tools or methods have been used previously for forming decorative patterns. One class of tools includes a template or stencil. One such stencil appears in U.S. Pat. No. 4,510,729 to Syring. This patent discloses a method using a template or stencil to create a brickwork appearance on a wall. The template, made from cardboard and corresponding to brick joints, is applied to a wall surface. Plaster is applied to the wall surface as well as over the template. After the template is removed the plaster takes on a brick like appearance. This method is time consuming, requires the template to be fixed to the wall, requires the template to be discarded or cleaned after every application, and does not ensure that a consistent plaster thickness will result.

A second class of tools used to form designs includes those which are forced into plaster to make the impressions. Such a tool used to make impressions in concrete appears in U.S. Pat. No. 5,487,656 to Kaitanjian. This patent discloses a tool having an identical periphery after rotation about a center point in any one of four 90-degree positions. In other words the tool can be fitted with adjacent tools in any one of four orientations. Another tool appears in FIGS. 10 and 11 of the drawings. This tool includes a rigid curved impression surface 60, upon which are raised elements 66, and a handle 62 fixed to a support side 64 of the tool. None of these prior art impression tools have a flexible impression surface or a transparent support base through which the impression surface can be seen. Furthermore, the tool with the curved surface in FIG. 10 does not have a continuous outer perimeter of the impression surface. Finally, although the tool in Kaitanjian '656 does have a continuous outer perimeter in the impression surface, the perimeter is formed from straight lines, which lines do not form a complex design.

The biggest problem with the prior art impression tools has been the proper alignment of tool impressions made subsequent to prior tool impressions. Without proper alignment the impression perimeters will not overlap one another and therefore will be visible. With proper alignment the impression perimeters will overlap and therefore create a continuous and seamless pattern. There currently is a need for an improved forming tool for making impressions in plaster, cement, and paint where the edges of the separate tool are in complete alignment and therefore overlap one another creating an overall design on a wall that looks uninterrupted. The object of this invention is to satisfy this need.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a tool 20 for forming aligned repeating pattern impressions in a deformable material. This tool comprises an upper support plate 22 with at least one handle 24 and a lower forming surface 26 adjacent the upper support plate 22. The lower forming surface 26 has raised elements 28 designed to form pattern impressions in the deformable material. The raised elements 28 are defined in part by four opposite edges 30, 32, 34, 36 of the raised elements forming a lower perimeter adjacent an upper perimeter 38 of the upper support plate 22. One of two edges 30, 34 of the lower perimeter of raised elements is designed to create a respective impression 40, 44 that will match only with a respective impression 42, 46 created by a respective one of two opposite edges 32, 36. To ensure proper alignment of the impression, the tool also is provided with alignment indicia to align a first impression made by the one continuous perimeter edge of the raised elements to a subsequent impression made by the opposite perimeter edge of the raised elements.

In one embodiment the alignment indicia is the upper perimeter 38 of the upper support plate 22 that corresponds with the edges 30, 32, 34, 36 forming the lower perimeter of the raised elements. In another embodiment the support plate 22 is transparent so that the impression made by the one of two edges 30, 34 of the raised elements forming the perimeter will be visible to the tool operator to help the tool operator align one of the subsequent impressions 42, 46 made by one of the opposite edges 32, 36 of the raised elements to one of the first impressions 40, 44. In this second embodiment the lower perimeter edge of the raised elements visible through the support plate is the alignment indicia. In a further embodiment the upper support plate 22 and the raised elements are made from a flexible material such as polyurethane.

In a preferred method of use of the present invention, one tool can be used to imprint a continuous pattern design, the tool being properly aligned with the use of the alignment indicia.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 shows the tool being used to create multiple aligned impressions in a wall of plaster;

FIG. 2 is a top view of the tool with a rectangular transparent support plate through which the raised elements are visible;

FIG. 3 is a bottom view of the tool in FIG. 2;

FIG. 4 is a top view of the tool with the support plate having an upper perimeter corresponding to the lower perimeter of the raised elements;

FIG. 5 is a bottom view of the tool in FIG. 4;

FIG. 6 is a cross section view of some raised elements formed with material added to the lower forming surface;

FIG. 7 is a cross section view of some raised element formed with material removed from the lower forming surface;

FIG. 8 is a view of a single pattern that can be formed by the tool;

FIG. 9 is a view of a pattern sequence that can be formed with the tool where the edges of each subsequent tool impression overlap one another.

FIG. 10 is a bottom view of a prior art tool;

FIG. 11 is a top view of the tool in the prior art;

FIG. 12 is a first alternate arrangement of the handles; and

FIG. 13 is a second alternate arrangement of the handles.

DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

The present invention overcomes the deficiencies of impression tools of the prior art by being capable of providing a tool operator with visual alignment indicia for easy alignment of the perimeter edge of the raised elements. This alignment indicia is a visual indication of the location of the lower perimeter edge of the raised elements so that an opposite edge of the lower perimeter can be visually aligned with an edge of a previously made impression.

FIG. 1 shows the tool 20 comprising an upper support plate 22 with an operator gripping each of two handles 24. It should be noted that this invention can be used with only one handle fixed to the support plate 22. As shown in FIGS. 3 and 5, the tool 20 also has a lower forming surface 26 with a plane generally parallel to and adjacent the plane of the upper support plate 22. The lower forming surface 26 has raised elements 28 with portions, which extend away from the lower forming surface. The raised elements are designed to form pattern impressions in the deformable material. The raised elements 28 are defined in part by four opposite edges 30, 32, 34, 36 of the raised elements forming a perimeter adjacent a perimeter 38 of the upper support plate 22. One of two edges 30, 34 of the lower perimeter of raised elements is designed to create a respective impression 40, 44 that will match only with a respective impression 42, 46 created by a respective one of two opposite edges 32, 36 of the perimeter of the lower forming surface. To ensure proper alignment of the impression, the tool also is provided with alignment indicia to align, as discussed in detail below, a first impression made by the one continuous edge of the raised elements to a subsequent impression made by the opposite edge of the raised elements.

The operator in FIG. 1 is either applying the tool 20 to a wall 50 upon which is plaster 52 or other soft material has been spread or removing the tool after an impression has been made. Although the tool has primarily been applied to plaster, other materials can include cement, paint, or any other soft material that can be applied to walls. In the discussion below mention of plaster should include any other similar soft material. Before the tool can be pressed into the plaster, the wall must be prepared. Such preparation can include the application of a sealer material to the wall to prevent liquids from penetrating through the wall surface and to act as a surface to which the layer of plaster. Upon this sealer material is placed at least one coat of plaster having a thickness of 1/16 to ¼ of an inch. Any plaster can be used but the best impressions have been made with a plaster containing a natural or slaked lime. A short time after the plaster 52 is applied, the tool 20 can be forced into contact with the plaster. The impression tool should be used to form the impression not later than 10 to 15 minutes after the plaster has been applied. After 10 to 15 minutes the plaster will no longer be pliable enough to make a good impression with the tool. Once the plaster with the design has dried, the surface is slidingly contacted with a trowel having a straight edge. This will compress the upper surface of the plaster to ensure that it is flat and will also burnish the upper surface producing a shine. After the sliding contact with the trowel, the surface of the plaster can be protected with a topcoat. This topcoat can be an acrylic, a solvent based wax, or a glaze.

Although the tool can be rigid, the upper support plate 22 in FIG. 1 is shown to be flexible. Flexibility in the upper support plate helps the operator to align the edges by first allowing at least one quarter 27 of the lower forming surface 26 to be pressed into the plaster and, after alignment is viewed to be proper, the raised elements 28 on the remainder of the lower forming surface 26 is pressed into the plaster 52. It has also been observed that flexibility of the upper support plate 22 and the lower forming surface 26 helps to prevent plaster 52 from remaining on the raised elements 28 and lower forming surface 26. Also a flexible upper support plate 22 and lower forming surface 26 will help to maintain a more evenly distributed force being placed on the plaster 52 even if the tool is not initially placed parallel to the wall 50.

FIGS. 2 through 5 show two embodiments of the tool. FIGS. 2 and 3 show a tool with a transparent support plate 22 having a rectangle shape with straight edges. By providing a transparent upper support plate 22, a tool operator can clearly see the previous impression made by the tool as well as the opposite edges 30, 32, 34, 36 of the lower perimeter of raised elements so that the correct lower perimeter edge of raised elements will overlap in proper alignment with the respective correct perimeter edge of a previous tool impression. FIG. 2 is a top view of the tool and FIG. 3 is a bottom view of the tool. The first alignment indicia include the opposite edges 30, 32, 34, 36 of the lower perimeter of raised elements which edges are observable through the transparent upper support plate 22.

FIGS. 4 and 5 show a tool which is transparent but can be opaque with upper perimeter 38 of the upper support plate 22 being cut to be directly above the edges 30, 32, 34, 36 forming the lower perimeter in the lower forming surface 26. With the upper perimeter 38 of the upper support plate 22 being located directly over and corresponding to the lower perimeter edges 30, 32, 34, 36 of raised elements in the lower forming surface 26, a tool operator can more easily align a previous impression made by the tool with the profile of the upper perimeter 38 of the upper support plate even if the upper support plate is opaque. FIG. 4 is a top view of the tool and FIG. 5 is a bottom view of the tool. The second alignment indicia is the profile of the upper perimeter 38 of the upper support plate 22 which upper perimeter corresponds to the edges 30, 32, 34, 36 forming the lower perimeter of the raised elements 28.

FIGS. 2 and 3 show a tool with raised elements 28 fixed to the lower forming surface 26. FIG. 6 shows a cross section of two raised elements 28 in FIG. 2. The raised elements can be formed by adding material to the lower forming surface 26 either by fixing a flexible stencil with adhesive or other joining means or by molding the raised elements to or with the lower forming surface. A filet 29 a is shown at the vertex between the wall 29 defining the raised element and the lower forming surface 26. This filet will help to prevent the unformed plaster from adhering to the lower forming surface as the tool is removed. The walls 29 extend a defined distance from the lower forming surface 26 and form a chamber 29 b.

FIGS. 4 and 5 show a tool with raised elements 28 formed by removing portions of the lower forming surface 26 with a grinding or laser ablation process, where the remaining portions of the surface define the raised elements 28. FIG. 7 shows a cross section of two raised elements 28 in FIG. 4. A filet 29 a is shown at the vertex between the wall 29 defining the raised element 28 and the lower forming surface 26. This filet 29 a will help to prevent the unformed plaster from adhering to the lower forming surface as the tool is removed. The walls 29 extend a defined distance from the bottom of the removed portion of the lower forming surface 26 and form a chamber 29 b.

Both cross sections shown in FIGS. 6 and 7 show that a small chamber 29 b is formed between the walls 29 of the raised elements 28 and the lower forming surface 26 in FIG. 6 or the bottom 29 c of the removed portion of the lower forming surface 26 in FIG. 7. This small chamber 29 b can be either closed or partially open with an opening 29 d, placed in the upper support plate 22 and the lower forming surface 26, to relieve pressure, which may be created by the plaster being forced into the chamber. This chamber will only allow a preset amount of plaster into the chamber thereby ensuring that the thickness of the plaster made by each impression will be more consistent.

FIG. 8 shows an impression made by either of the tool embodiments. The tool creates four continuous perimeter edge impressions 40, 42, 44, 46. Edge 40 will cooperate with edge 42 and edge 44 will cooperate with edge 46. With such cooperating edges the impression made by one edge 40, 44 will overlap the impression made by a respective cooperating edge 42, 46. FIG. 9 shows five impressions made by the tool with the perimeter edge impressions 40 and 42 and 44 and 46 in alignment and therefore overlapping one another. Overlapping edges will ensure that a continuous seamless pattern is made without any indication that many tool impressions were needed to make the complete design on a wall.

FIGS. 10 and 11 show an example of a tool in the prior art. FIG. 10 shows the lower forming surface 60 of the tool. This surface is rigid, is curved, and has a non-continuous perimeter ending in non-continuous raised elements 66 with a multiple of sidewall edges. FIG. 11 shows the support side 64 of the prior art tool with a handle 62. However, aligning the designs with this prior art tool is difficult since the support side of the tool is opaque preventing the operator from seeing an edge of the raised elements. The perimeter of the support side 64 does not match the perimeter edge of the raised elements on the lower forming surface 60. In other words the operator is not able to see whether or not the edges of the raised elements are in alignment until after the impression has been made and the tool has been removed.

FIGS. 12 and 13 show two handles 24 fixed to the upper support plate 22 in two arrangements different from those shown in FIGS. 1-5. In FIGS. 1-5 the longitudinal axis of one handle is parallel and in line with the longitudinal axis of the other handle. In FIG. 12 the longitudinal axis of one handle is perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the other handle whereas in FIG. 13 the longitudinal axis of one handle is parallel with nut no in line with the longitudinal axis of the other handle. It has been found that the arrangement of handles can improve the use of the tool for certain applications.

Although the present invention is described herein with some particularity, it should be understood that this disclosure has been made only by way of example. Therefore medications can be made to the invention as claimed herein without departing from the scope of the invention. 

1. A tool for forming aligned repeating pattern impressions in a deformable material, comprising: an upper support plate; a lower forming surface adjacent the upper support plate having raised elements designed to form the pattern impressions in the deformable material, the raised elements defined in part by four opposite edges of the raised elements forming a lower perimeter adjacent an upper perimeter of the upper support plate, one edge of the lower perimeter of raised elements being designed to create an impression which will match only with an impression created by an edge of the lower perimeter opposite said one edge; at least one handle fixed to the upper support plate; and alignment indicia designed to align a first impression made by said one edge of the raised elements to a subsequent impression made by said opposite edge of the raised elements to create the repeating pattern impressions with properly aligned impression edges.
 2. The tool as set forth in claim 1, wherein the alignment indicia is a profile of the upper perimeter in the upper support plate which corresponds to the edges forming the lower perimeter of the raised elements.
 3. The tool as set forth in claim 1, wherein the raised elements of the lower forming surface having portions which extend away from the lower forming surface and ending in raised sections.
 4. The tool as set forth in claim 3, wherein the raised elements are fixed to the bottom of the upper support plate and are defined by raised section walls extending a defined distance from the lower forming surface toward the raised section and the lower forming surface and further wherein the raised section walls form chambers with the lower forming surface which will maintain a preset amount of deformable material within the chambers so that the impression of the deformable material made by each impression will have a thickness which consistent with the thickness made by subsequent impressions made by the tool.
 5. The tool as set forth in claim 4 further including a filet formed at the vertex between the raised section walls and the lower forming surface so that deformable material has a reduced tendency to adhere to the lower forming surface and the raised elements.
 6. The tool as set forth in claim 1, wherein the raised elements of the lower forming surface are formed from portions of the lower forming surface which remain after portions of the lower forming surface have been removed.
 7. The tool as set forth in claim 6, wherein the raised elements have walls extending a defined distance from the lower forming surface toward an upper surface and form chambers which will maintain a preset amount of deformable material within the chambers so that the impression of the deformable material made by each impression will have a thickness which consistent with the thickness made by subsequent impressions made by the tool.
 8. The tool as set forth in claim 6 further including a filet formed at the vertex between the imprint walls and the lower forming surface so that deformable material has a reduced tendency to adhere to the lower forming surface and the raised elements.
 9. The tool as set forth in claim 1, wherein the upper support plate is transparent and the alignment indicia include the four opposite edges of the lower perimeter of raised elements which edges are observable through the transparent upper support plate.
 10. The tool as set forth in claim 1, wherein the upper support plate is formed from a flexible material.
 11. The tool as set forth in claim 10, wherein said flexible material is substantially constructed from polyurethane.
 12. The tool as set forth in claim 10, further comprising two handles attached to said upper support plate.
 13. The tool as set forth in claim 1, wherein the lower perimeter formed by the four opposite edges of the raised elements is continuous.
 14. The tool as set forth in claim 4, further comprising an opening in both the lower forming surface and the upper support plate communicating with the chamber so that a small amount of deformable material can exit from the chamber through the opening to further ensure a consistent thickness of the impressions.
 15. The tool as set forth in claim 7, further comprising an opening in both the lower forming surface and the upper support plate communicating with the chamber so that a small amount of deformable material can exit from the chamber through the opening to further ensure a consistent thickness of the impressions.
 16. The tool as set forth in claim 1 wherein two handles, each having a longitudinal axis, are fixed to the upper support plate wherein the longitudinal axis of both handles are parallel to one another.
 17. The tool as set forth in claim 1 wherein two handles, each having a longitudinal axis, are fixed to the upper support plate wherein the longitudinal axis of both handles are perpendicular to one another. 